STORY:
Saving Millennium Memorabilia

How long should you keep your year 2000 hats, snow globes and other trinkets?

Wondering if you should toss that Year 2000 champagne glass, the snow globe or the 2000 tiara? If so, you’re not alone. Many of us have purchased some sort of trinket to remind us of the moment we entered the 21^st century, the new millennium.

Experts say if you want to make money off your things, just put them away in an attic for at least 20 years! That’s right, your stuff probably won’t be worth much until two decades from today. Even then, there are no guarantees that someone will pay you big bucks for that party hat.

If you don’t want to wait 20 years you can always put your items on an Internet auction site. Of course, you’ll have a lot of competition. The Boston Globe reports that searchers found more than 9,000 millennium related items on 60 auction-related Web sites. On the sites Disney’s millennium pins were selling fast until people found out that the company will make more this spring. Millennium Beanie Babies were available on the sites, but not selling. In the case of the Beanies the supply outnumbered the demand.

One collector in Pennsylvania says the Millennium items will turn out to be much like the Bicentennial items sold in 1976. Ted Hake, who runs a collectible auction out of York, PA, says the products are too diffuse and lacking in potential nostalgia.

"A tremendous amount of the same type of stuff was produced for the Bicentennial, and it’s virtually worthless today, Hake told the Boston Globe. "I have the feeling the millennial stuff is headed down the same road."

There is always this option. Donate your stuff to the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University. The four-year-old center wants to archive millennial documents and memorabilia. If you contribute to the archive you will receive a certificate of recognition and earn the title of associate archivist. This may be your best bet. It’s a certificate and a title or trash for many millennium items.

(Source: Boston Globe)

DATE: 1/21/2000

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